Star light in a bleak night

 One autumn day when I was five, me and my sister (who was eleven at the time) got lost in the woods. We had been hiking with our brother, but wanted to go home before him. That was the day I learned that my sister does not have any sense of direction what so ever. We were not far from home, and the trip should only take about fifteen minutes, but it was not long before we became completely lost. We went in the opposite direction of what we were supposed to: so instead of going towards our house, we went straight into the deepest parts of the forest.

We walked and walked for hours, and the night became pitch-black, both because we were in the woods and because it was raining. I became very frightened and began to cry. After many hours, we came to a clearing in the woods. I looked up at the sky. The clouds had lifted and the sky was covered with stars. It was a beautiful sight.

When we came to the clearing, we also spotted the out door lights of some houses nearby. We went towards the light, and discovered that we had been going in a big circle, and had ended up not far from our house. When we came home, it was over nine o'clock in the evening. Embarrassed, but very happy, I went to bed that night.

I really wanted to make a shawl of the starry night sky through the foliage, as I remembered it from that night in the woods. In the center of this shawl, I used a pattern called "Star Light". The pattern looks simple enough, but is one of the most challenging patterns I've ever knitted. For the inner border, I used a simple leaf pattern, which I have modified slightly so that it will fit with the increases in the corners. I have also added rain drops on the leaves. The outer border is a variation of the wet leaf pattern, which I composed myself. 

I have knitted the shawl in a thin and hairy alpaca yarn called Air from Du store alpaca. It is knitted in a dark steel gray colour (no. 111) which is very bleak, as that night in the woods. I wanted to make a big, thick but light shawl, which cover everything and make it dark, but where you could just make out what lies behind.

That night in the woods gave me an experience that defined me. Now, I always make sure I know where I am and where I'm going, and I do not take for granted that others (espesially my sister) know. But it also made me an optimist: If I don't give up, new opportunities will always emerge, even if everything seems very bleak and without any hope.